Fieldrunners – PSP Minis

The new range of PSP Minis that launched alongside the PSP Go were inevitably going to offer a broad variety of genres. Whilst quite a number of such ‘bite-size’ games are typically puzzle games, recent years have seen an increased interest within the genre of tower defense games and their compellingly addictive nature. When I learnt one of the iPhone’s top-selling games, and a recipient of a multitude of awards, was set to be enhanced and ported over to the PSP, it should be easy to see why I was particularly excited about the prospect of getting my hands on it.

The title in question is Subatomic Studios’ highly acclaimed Fieldrunners, and follows many ‘traditional’ elements from the tower defense formula. Your main aim is to defend and control a field from continual waves of enemies, using a diverse selection of upgradeable towers.

Compared to its original iPhone counterpart, the PSP version includes a host of new content including two new maps, new towers and enemies, as well as receiving enhanced graphics, visual effects and music. It’s certainly nice to see so much effort into making this more than just a simple port.

You’ll begin with just one available map, and must reach wave 50 before being rewarded another, wave 75 will gain you a fast forward option for the map (which will save you a lot of time!). Finally, defeating the final wave 100 will grant you a Extended and Endless modes – allowing you to use extra towers on top of the core two or face neverending waves of enemies, so the challenge is really on to keep on top of things within the game.

The five maps provide plenty of variety in both environment and layout, meaning that you will have to figure out the best way in which to set up your defences to ensure enemies don’t break through. A difference here to other tower defence titles, is that you can use the positioning of your turrets to alter the route that the enemies will take as they attempt to dash across the field to get into your base. This therefore allows for a strategic element of creatively placing/ laying out your turrets in such a way that you can channel each wave past as many of them as possible. You’ll be using the Slime Towers just to slow down the enemy to get in those last few cheeky shots to mercilessly finish them off, and the new addition of a Laser Tower is perhaps the most destructive inclusion being able to damage all enemies in range along whichever direction it fires.

The controls work incredibly well with the L + R buttons changing the selection of Tower, and the D-pad used for both placement and selecting to sell/upgrade. In my opinion, it feels much easier than it’s iPhone predecessor, and the removal of the touchscreen elements allow for far more accuracy in tower placement, as well as moving the camera around the map.

Fieldrunners provides a gloriously addictive and fun natured tower defense title within the launch line-up of PSP Minis, and stands tall both at being perfectly suited to the handheld as well as being a highlight of Sony’s new bitesize venture.

Lost Gamer Verdict: 8/10

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